Following several years of working closely together, North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (North Mid) and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust are now looking to merge into one organisation.
North Mid and the Royal Free London have been clinical partners since 2017 and in a formal partnership since 2021.
Since January, the Trusts have been developing detailed plans for coming together, with North Mid potentially merging to become part of the Royal Free London Group alongside Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, and the Royal Free Hospital.
The hospitals would continue to provide the same local services. At North Mid, these include, A&E, maternity, intensive care, paediatrics, acute surgery, medicine and community services.
However, the Trusts expect to deliver the following as one organisation in a merger:
- Reduced waiting times
- Improved access to specialist care locally
- Better joined-up community services
- Greater opportunities to benefit from the latest medical research and trials of new treatments
- More coordinated action to help people stay healthy, with screening and early intervention services tailored to our different communities
The plans the Trusts are developing will form a business case for the merger and will need to be approved by both Trust boards and NHS England.
We are currently developing detailed plans for the proposed merger which will then need to be approved by the boards of both trusts and NHS England
The Trusts are working to have the business case completed by summer 2024 and to bring the organisations together in autumn 2024.
NHS England told Building Better Healthcare that it is unable to provide an initial comment about the merger and its potential to happen.
An NHS England spokesperson, said: “NHS is unable to comment on this until the business case has been submitted and the application concluded.”
A spokesperson for the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and the Royal Free London NHS Trust, said: “Following several years of ever closer joint working, the boards of North Mid and the Royal Free London group have agreed to look at how we could come together as one organisation.”
The Trusts are working to have the business case completed by summer 2024 and to bring the organisations together in autumn 2024
“Our experience has shown that together we can deliver better care for local people and more opportunities for staff,” the spokesperson continued.
“While our hospitals and community services would continue to provide the same local services, we believe joining together would enable us to go further and faster in improving services for patients and the health of our local community,” the spokesperson explained.
“We are currently developing detailed plans for the proposed merger which will then need to be approved by the boards of both trusts and NHS England," the spokesperson concluded.